World Briefs

CHINA-AUSTRALIA Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull hailed business ties with China but skirted sensitive political issues yesterday during an official visit to his country’s key trade partner. Today, he’s meeting Xi Jinping.

CHINA’s live-streaming sites have become a burgeoning cottage industry, offering money-making opportunities and even stardom to their mostly female hosts and an entertaining new alternative for millions of viewers to online dramas and stodgy state-controlled TV.

SOUTH KOREA President Park Geun-hye has long been known as the “Queen of Elections” for a decades-long track record of steering her party to sometimes unlikely victories. Now, a crushing, shocking defeat in parliamentary elections sets up the fight of her political life.

NORTH KOREA Pyongyang drivers are feeling some pain at the pump as rising gas prices put a pinch on what has been major traffic growth over the past few years — and that might not be good news for the isolated country’s shifting domestic economy. The hikes come as North Korea is facing tougher international sanctions over its nuclear program.

INDONESIA A lawyer for the spiritual leader of the militants who carried out the 2002 Bali bombings is urging Indonesian authorities to end his “inhumane” treatment in prison.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA Twelve people, including three children, were killed after their light plane crashed in a remote part of Papua New Guinea. The fixed-wing aircraft was approaching an airport in the port town of Kiunga when it crashed into a shallow swamp. Air crash investigators were trying to determine what caused the accident.

USA A woman used a social media app to livestream the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl, an Ohio prosecutor said. The case came to light when authorities were contacted after a friend of the woman saw the images. Marina Lonina, 18, and co-defendant Raymond Gates, 29, were charged with rape, kidnapping, sexual battery and pandering sexually-oriented matter involving a minor.

HOLLYWOOD Rachel McAdams, the actress who portrayed a Boston Globe reporter in the Oscar-winning “Spotlight,” believes journalists should be praised as “unsung heroes,” although nothing is easy about their jobs except for the frumpy clothes they get to wear. “It really is a dying art, and not for the faint of heart either,” she told reporters in Tokyo.

UNITED NATIONS An open letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon signed by more than 1,000 people, including financier Warren Buffett, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and rock star Sting, says the war on drugs has failed and calls for a shift in global drug policy from emphasizing criminalization and punishment to health and human rights. The letter signed by former presidents of Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Switzerland and others, was made public yesterday.